This invention relates to a system for reporting an emergency call from a mobile communication terminal to an appropriate one of institutions, which include police, hospital and bank.
A lot of people visit foreign countries these days and consequently, there are a lot of people who trouble with accidents such as being involved in a traffic accident, losing money or article, being stolen, etc in a foreign country.
If you encounter such trouble in a foreign country, you would have to contact with the local police and/or ambulance. Further, if you do not have enough money to solve the trouble, you might also contact with your family in the homeland to ask him/her to send money to the nearby financial institution.
In these cases, a useful method of communication is telephone. Mobile telephone is particularly preferable because you can always keep your terminal in your pocket or bag to telephone. Recently, international roaming for mobile telephone has begun. Therefore, you can use the mobile telephone terminal that you use in the homeland. Thus, it can reassure you to carry a mobile telephone terminal with you in a foreign country.
On the other hand, emergency police/medical telephone number of a country is generally different from that of another country. Therefore, if you don't know the telephone number, you cannot telephone the institution you want to contact with even if you are carrying a mobile telephone with you. Furthermore, emergency in a foreign country exhausts you mentally and physically. Therefore, even if you have a mobile telephone terminal and know the suitable number, it should be difficult to dial the telephone number correctly and immediately.
In addition, you have to be concerned about difference in language. In order to ask help in a foreign country, after dialing the suitable number, you may have to describe where you are to a native speaking in a language which you cannot speak in.
Otherwise, you may suddenly have to prepare cash in a foreign country. For example, you may have your wallet stolen, or you may have to overstay because the flight you have reserved is canceled. It would be available for overcoming these difficulties that (1) you withdraw from an account which you have opened in your homeland; (2) you borrow money by a credit card; or (3) you ask your family to send money.
(1) and (2) are unreliable because financial institutions available for (1) and (2) are restricted. These ways require a financial institution near your current position that keeps your account or cooperates with a financial institution that keeps your account. However, it depends on your current position whether there is such a financial institution or not.
On the other hand, (3) does not require a specific financial institution. Therefore, you can receive money if there is any financial institution near your current position. Telegraphic transfer remittance is available for sending money from a financial institution in a country to a financial institution in another country. It is assumed that you are now travelling an area in a foreign country and you have opened no account at any financial institution in the area.
First, you telephone to your family or a friend in your homeland, tell her/him where you are and why you have called, and ask her/him to send desired amount of money to a teller's window of the financial institution nearby you.
In response to your telephone, your family or a friend goes to a financial institution in your homeland. Next, she/he designates a financial institution such as a bank, a teller's window of a local branch of the financial institution, a recipient (you) and amount of remittance in order to remit to you via the teller's window.
After that, you visit the teller's window, prove your identity with your passport and tell the teller's window that you come to receive money sent from a remitter's account in your homeland. The teller's window identifies you and then hands over remittance to you.
According to this method, a financial institution that a remitter sends money from does not have to be the same as a financial institution nearby a recipient. The recipient does not have to open a new account at a nearby financial institution in order to receive remittance. Some financial institutions require qualification to open an account. It is sometimes difficult for foreigners to satisfy the qualification. This method does not require such qualification,
However, according to this method, the recipient must find out a financial institution in an unfamiliar area, and then, must communicate name of the financial institution, name of the branch of the financial institution, amount of remittance, etc to a remitter. In addition, though the recipient must make a teller of the financial institution identify him/herself in order to receive the remittance, the teller is not always able to speak in language that you can speak in.
If the recipient wishes to receive the remittance without fail, she/he should have experienced enough times such searching and procedure in foreign country where her/his language is not spoken. However, travelers mostly don't have such experience.
Furthermore, this method requires a remitter. Remitting money to a foreign financial institution is unfamiliar to most people. Thus, according to this method, both a remitter and a recipient must surmount various obstacles. This method is unsuitable to receive cash in a foreign country in case of emergency, except for a few ones who are used to traveling.
Hereinafter, documents showing conventional techniques relating to the present invention are referred below.
A Japanese unexamined patent publication number 2000-182194, namely 182194/2000, shows a method that after receiving an emergency call from a mobile terminal, an administration office requests a car mechanic, a policeman, an ambulance or the like to go into action. This document, however, does not show how to deal with a case when a user of the mobile terminal and one who receives the request speak different language from each other.
A Japanese unexamined patent publication number 08-186856, namely 186856/1996, shows a technique for “providing a mobile telephone device which automatically switches an international telephone code and emergency telephone numbers to current ones even if the user of the mobile telephone device moves through plural countries or areas” (paragraph 0005). This document also does not show how to deal with above-mentioned case. Further, according to this technique, though it is available to detect whether there is a mobile telephone device in a service area of a wireless station or not, it is unavailable to specify a current position of the mobile telephone device.